Filmmaking is all about telling stories visually. In order to tell a proper story, there are some prerequisites. No. Having a sweet HDSLR rig isn’t one of them. The first thing you need to make a film is a story. The next thing you need is to know that story inside out and upside down.
Know your characters. Know their personalities, their habbits, their vices, their hobbies, their desires, their fears. You should know what a character would do in any situation, even if that situation isn’t part of your film. You need to be able to communicate these things things to the actors who will bring your characters to life. This is a HUGE part of that thing they call “Directing”, and an area that so many filmmakers neglect.
While we’re on characters, let’s talk about plot. There is a lot of debate about which is more important, character or plot. But in my opinion, you need both. Plot is character and character is plot. The plot should be pushed forward by the decisions that a character makes, and a character should be forced to make tough decisions based on the situations that arise. There is nothing more uninteresting than a couple of unique characters that nothing happens to. Likewise, the world crumbling to pieces around a group of characters that you could care less about is lame storytelling.
Know the character’s arc. How does a character change from the beginning to the end? What are the lessons learned? What does your character want? And what does the character need? The want and the need are usually two very different things. You should always know how the characters feel. It’s kind of cliché, but you really do need to know their motivation. If you don’t, you are at a disadvantage.
You should also know how the film should make an audience feel. Story is all about making a connection with your audience and taking them on an emotional journey. Action, comedy, drama, thriller. It doesn’t matter. This is true for all films. In order to take an audience on this emotional journey, you need to have an emotional connection to the story.
Use this emotional connection to your story to make decisions about shots, colors, set design, cuts, pacing, music, so that you can make the audience feel the way they should feel. Don’t just come up with cool shots because you want an homage to your favorite director. Quentin Tarantino does it all the time, and he makes great films, but I can assure you that he knows exactly how those shots fit into and progress his story.
The difference between good films and bad ones is that a good filmmaker pays attention to all of these little emotional details about the story. If you want to have an effect on your audience, you need to hit them with your story on multiple levels. you can’t do that without knowing the inner workings of your story and what you’re trying to say.
Don’t just point the camera at your actors and hope they will do great things. It is your responsibility to bring all of the elements together to tell the story. Bad acting is one of the biggest giveaways that you don’t know what you’re doing as a filmmaker. A great filmmaker will get the performances needed out of anyone. Take a look at Soderbergh’s film, Bubble. There is not a single experienced actor in that film, just regular folks who had never been in front of a camera before that.
If you have bad acting in your film, all of the shallow depth of field in the world doesn’t help your production value the way that you think it does. It actually makes it worse since the only thing in focus is the bad performance. When a performance goes bad in a shallow focus shot, the audience can’t drift into “Wow, what great art direction” mode.
You need to know your theme. Theme should be the foundation for all of the creative decisions that you will make while producing your film. Know your story, or else. Or else what? Know your story, or live with a mediocre film that doens’t hold an audience’s attention. A film that satisfies no one but yourself. If you want to make a self indulgent film that only you and your friends will enjoy, fine. But please don’t put it out there for the world to see.
If you have something to say, and want to make art, you need to appeal to an audience. Whether it’s a small niche, or a wider general audience. This doesn’t mean that you need to follow a formula or remake someone else’s story and play it safe the way much of Hollywood does it. The people that are spending their money, or their time watching your film want to be entertained with meaningful content.
The reason to tell a story and to make art or entertainment is for people to “experience” it. It is our responsibility as filmmakers to create a meaningful experience. If you take your filmmaking seriously, you should study storytelling.
All of this story business helps you decide where to put the camera, how to light a scene, focal length, movement, wardrobe, color, prop choice, set dressing, locations, music, sound effects, how fast to cut, which angle to cut to, and so much more. Story is the most important tool in a filmmaker’s kit, and is really worth spending the time to learn. No matter what your function is on a film, you will benefit from some knowledge of story, and bring value to the production if you understand basic storytelling principles. Because story is so important to films of all types, it is worth spending some time learning more about. We spend so much time reading and watching Final Cut Pro and After Effects tutorials and looking at camera test footage. If we spend a fraction of that time learning about story and story structure, it would take us so much further than any software tutorial or lens test ever could.
If you want to learn about story, I recommend the following books and blogs.
Books
Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting
Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need
Writing a Great Movie: Key Tools for Successful Screenwriting
Blogs
I am a student of story, and always looking for learning resources. Do you have any story resources that you would recommend? Leave some links in the comments.
